Govinda has often spoken about his close bond with his late mother, Nirmala Devi, who was once a leading actress in Hindi cinema. While Govinda went on to build a successful career in films, his mother walked away from the industry within a decade of her debut. She shaved her head and embraced the life of a sadhvi (ascetic) while bringing up her five children. The actor believes he has inherited her sense of detachment and learned not to be affected by what others say about him.Recalling the difficult phase his family went through, Govinda recently spoke about his mother’s decision to give up acting. “After becoming a heroine, my mother Nirmala Devi got poor to such an extent that all the stuff from our bungalow were taken away,” recalled Govinda in a recent interview. “My father told her, ‘Nirmala, you’re so pretty that when you go out to ask for work, people would ogle at you.’ So my poor mother got her shaved off her eyebrows and head and became a saint. She said, ‘Let my children grow up,’” he added.Growing up watching his mother renounce her aspirations and embrace an ascetic life left a lasting impression on Govinda. He says her influence has shaped the way he deals with personal criticism, including the recent allegations made by his wife, Sunita Ahuja. “Being the son of such a mother, I don’t care about who’s saying what about me. I’m not even looking in that direction,” he told ABP Live while addressing Sunita’s allegations that he cheated on her with Komal Rani, a much younger co-star from his upcoming home production, ‘Roopa’.Govinda also recalled how his mother initially discouraged him from pursuing acting, believing his innocence would make it difficult for him to survive in the film industry. His father, Arun Kumar Ahuja, who was also a former actor, saw potential in his son and encouraged him to follow his dreams, a path that both his parents had eventually left behind.Nirmala Devi made her acting debut in 1942 as the leading lady in VC Desai’s ‘Savera’. She subsequently appeared in films such as SU Sunny’s ‘Geet’, Rama Chowdhary’s ‘Gaali’ (1944), Nanabhai Bhatt’s ‘Chalis Karod’ (1946) and M Sadiq’s ‘Anmol Ratan’ (1950). She eloped with her ‘Savera’ co-star Arun Kumar Ahuja in 1942. The couple later reunited on screen for his 1948 home production, ‘Sehra’, which failed at the box office. Nirmala Devi stepped away from films after ‘Jai Mahalkashmi’ in 1951 and devoted herself to raising their five children — three daughters and two sons.The failure of ‘Sehra’ also forced the family to leave their bungalow in the upscale Carter Road area of Bandra and move to Virar, a Mumbai suburb. Seeing his mother struggle through financial hardship became a driving force for Govinda, who wanted to change the family’s circumstances. Speaking on ‘Rendezvous with Simi Garewal’ in 2003, he recalled, “When you see your mother struggling to get through a bad patch in life, struggling very hard… She was coping with everything. I have seen her struggle through everything and I wanted to change it very fast,” the actor confessed.Govinda began auditioning for roles in films and television and initially secured a few projects in which he was cast as a villain. However, before filming could begin, he received offers to play lead roles and decided to step away from the earlier projects, returning the signing amounts. He made his memorable debut as a lead actor with Shibu Mitra’s 1986 hit ‘Ilzaam’, followed by another major success that year with Esmayeel Shroff’s romantic film ‘Love 86’.
